russia and the syrian moderate opposition find an agreement on how to set up the first deescalation near the capital damascus. one of america's most senior general says that russia's presence in syria is more legitimate than the us is something that could. pull out of the country. activists at sea. heading to europe all dealt with by. are accused of having a racist agenda we confront them over. and antiterrorist some of the company comes attraction for tourists amid controversy over his choice location in the west bank.

international live from studio with me. welcome to the program. the first document establishing a deescalation zone in syria has been signed between russia and syria's moderate opposition. in the studio with the latest on the development. it finally is the first deal that's been signed as a deescalation zone in the key strategic area which is fifteen kilometers east of damascus and its key strategic area or one time population of two million people prior to the syrian conflict key point strategic importance of signed a document it's the first time it sets out also how people are going to behave and also how they can keep the peace and what is the deal mean in practice what in practice it's been a bit of

a military free for all there so you have the government forces fighting against the rebel forces nor so you have the rebel forces fighting amongst themselves as well and you've you've had the reports of even the terror group al shabab which is for me as you know now known as our nose or that was fighting there as well so now of course this sets out a peace process that is going to be no more fighting there we're going to have humanitarian and medical aid most of it's going to be a road map on how they rebuild the infrastructure there that's been decimated as we've seen by some of the pictures and also there's going to be a means of having safe passage for the civilians that are left there been able to leave seems like there's progress it's been a long process so far but there will be next steps in terms of the syrian peace process what will it be well the idea is that this is the first of four particular deescalation zones while they're still nailing out the final details so we're also looking at other key flashpoints in live in homs and see whether they can then come together and establish four of these particular zones who will be responsible for ensuring that this deal is carried out well as you know as you were at the u.s. last interview storks this is very much

a follow up of what was happening there so the guarantors will be turkey iran and russia at the moment this particular deal has been trashed out growth but in cairo by egypt those are the three countries that were the initial peace talks and they're looking to work together to ensure that this is guaranteed this time around and also looks like it's going to be a long road ahead and see how they manage it. lebanon's political and militant group hezbollah has officially confirmed its fighting terrorism by the syrian army at the syrian lebanese border these are the latest pictures of the joint operation in western colorado and. the operation is taking place in ninth of last stronghold along the border with lebanon the terror group set up a military base in a mountainous area inside syria islamic state had been moving closer to the refugee camp just across the border in lebanon the area has also been a place of operation for the new through front ati's are many suit delves into the

history of has been its presence in syria. lebanon's hezbollah has long been fighting alongside assad government forces throughout the six year syrian civil war but for the first time the armed group is making it official. hezbollah claims it's driving and isis terrorists as well as rebels out of the last foothold on the syrian lebanese border a mountainous region seen here on the map the green part here is controlled by al nusra and rebels and the black here by isis so far sounds like just another development in the ongoing fight against terrorism in syria right so what's the big deal let's break it down. as well as presence in syria has always been a bone of contention as israel the u.s. and the arab league all view the group as a terrorist organization and levanon hizbullah

a terrorist organization you just towns to shield its balance of tens of thousands of illegal rockets it's militias stand side by side with syrian troops as they slaughter the syrian people. iran continues to support terrorism including palestinian terrorists has blown and also. has below is a terrorist organization and they are currently. cross international loans in fighting in another country overtly it's in no way trying to demonize a group that is fighting against west against american against israeli and saudi interests in the region. but not everyone categorized as hezbollah fighters as terrorists the list of those who don't include

syria russia china and of course iran which funds it and helped create the group in the eighty's the russian. allies and they came here legally they support us again the terrorists there are many participants in the fighting these are the syrian army forces and those forces that are usually called pro-government including his bill which is supported by the iranians his blood is fighting alongside this. block against the terrorist groups the western media has proven that they were supported by western countries by the united states by saudi arabia and also by israel. so why is hezbollah being more brazen in syria all of a sudden raising the flag. might be an attempt to assure the supporters of hezbollah that the fire will go on against the terrorist groups until

the end looks like hezbollah as waving its flags openly in syria as this feeling confident it's on the winning side. one of america's most senior generals aside that russia has more influence in syria than the u.s. and that moscow could soon fourth america out of the war torn country. we're a bad day away from the russians saying why are you still in syria us if the russians play that chord we may want to stay and have no. ability to do it they could play doh. the general was addressing the aspen security forum in washington d.c. but another american official there painted russia's presence in syria in a rather different light cia director might pompei or was asked why russia was involved in the war to which he replied that the sole reason was to quote stick it to america he also claimed moscow is only aiming to make washington's life difficult. let's discuss this further with journalists martin j.

martin thanks for joining us here on our team now what do you think of the u.s. general raymond thomas' assessment. i think it's a valid one and i think it will hold a certain amount of waste in the coming months and coming years if we ever look at a situation in the future where a boy or a group of individuals or even states the syrian status of puts together a legal case against either america or the united nations i mean you know the sort of the legal points which stand out but these things tend to be political more than anything else and i think that's those sort of comments from leading individuals military or state or otherwise are going to be part of the momentum which is going to build up in the next few weeks i think which will raise the same point of what really is the legal basis of america in syria is quite a surprising statement though isn't it that he's emphasized that fact considering that you know syria in the media been talking about this for a long time

a syria did invite russia to help them out they didn't do the same with the u.s. . yeah it's with every week we seem to have surprises from from this part of the world i'm from syria so it's some it's interesting that senior military officials are now sort of going renegade and i'm beginning to show some disenchantment with donald trump's policy in the middle east which is really hit and miss at best. you know it's we seem to be seeing a certain amount of recalcitrant statements coming from senior figures and i think i think this one stands out but we could expect yeah i mean you're talking about expecting more is there the possibility that the reason why this is being said is that they could be. america pulling out of syria and how badly do you think

washington wants to stay there. well i think it's confused about its whole middle east strategy. you know from a from a long term to a political. i think. the ground is quite weak and i think that you know. some of the recent events that we've seen show donald trump doesn't really seem to have much of a long term strategy and there doesn't seem to be a clear end game. so you know i think we can expect more of this sort of commentary from people within the institutions in america and around the world you know i think we seem to be that when trump mr putin got together just recently that thrashed out. a peace deal for the south we seem to be moving in the right direction we seem to be adopting a certain coherence in the region but there's a lot of confusion with a lot of tensions and one wonders how long american rikan really keep warm with his

presence in the country. one of time but great to have your thoughts on the issue and the developments that's a journalist martin jay there talking to us on r.t. international banks. with the number of migrants arriving in italy growing by the day a group a defender in europe is trying to stem the flow it's sailing a ship to the region and a bid to turn back migrant boats coming from africa the vessel will be based in the sicilian port of catania and it will be patrolling the mediterranean off the coast of libya the mission says it wants to expose a humanitarian groups that it claims are working directly with people smugglers the activists accuse them of effectively providing migrants a taxi service directly to europe. the group is bankrolling the mission with many ways three crowd funding so far they've received more than one hundred twenty six thousand dollars however the mission has been accused of being racist. or trying to

challenge one of those behind it and also gauge reaction from local italians were at the port of in sicily among the ships that come into the sport you will every now and then see boats full of migrants but we are here to talk to an activist who is expecting the arrival of a very different kind of boat with a very controversial purpose. so somewhere around here will probably arrive by next week. what we cherish of course is a cultural identity are you a racist or an extremist organization your final purpose is what. we want to ensure that europe stays in europe this is what some people call racism . i think the european union should feel ashamed now they want to use sicily as a rallying point for disgusting racism that does not belong to our culture i know

that our welcoming culture is disliked by european fascists but we won't give up we are not going to be silent in the face of this call to violence against desperate human beings these peoples need to buy history books we're not trying to provoke a situation where anybody's life is at risk so you're not attacking them i know we're not attacking migrants we're not going to attack the n.g.o.s we would just try to document what they're doing and we want to make sure that these n.g.o.s are not working as some kind of proxy for the human traffickers what happens if you see that someone's life is in danger we will also come and rescue them really and what are you going to do when a refugee ends up on your boat we would try to bring them to africa again. people of sicily have gotten used to migrants to the many n.g.o.s that have come here to help but an anti migrant angio patrolling the mediterranean that is

something most people here have never heard of so let's ask the locals about the concept what do you think of the n.g.o.s that are working in the mediterranean to help the migrants the moon as they see the bits and i don't like what they doing what if this is right twinging and geo both doesn't sound good this is the boat. the right wing activists will be on this boat they will be patrolling the mediterranean to make sure that there is no illegal migration and to make sure that the n.g.o.s don't break the laws what do you think about that good job like that it's good and the opinion of the migrants. they don't want migrants here i mean if they want if they don't one migrants i mean they have to be out to make a peace and stability in libya they say if they rescue migrants from the boats they will take them back to africa that this is that is what come on how can someone who is live i mean up in the middle of militancy you know take the bus to africa that's

nothing i mean some people call them racists do you agree with that there's no racist but so are you there's already too many people here yet no jobs so there's no room for everyone do you think that's racist i don't think so and i'm not against helping migrants but we should help them in their own countries so here's a seeing that seems to have become typical for sicily we've got a park where we can see the migrants then and geo group to help them and also there are locals who are still feeling the burden of the economic crisis and don't want migrants and their hometown and all of them are in one same part not too long before right wing activists join the mob the club the trend toward tea could tiny and it really. we'll be back in a couple of minutes and don't go away. according

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to the program humanitarian groups are concerned about the possible cost of victory in iraq a after another i saw stronghold the iraqi city of mosul was retaken at a heavy price with scores of civilians injured and killed the operation lasted longer than the battle for stalin granted that the end the city has been left totally devastated. from u.k. based charity muslim and she visited mosul and described what she saw. what i saw was just. i mean it was indescribable it was like a movie set it's completely obliterated the whole city is ruined. you know those

cars that have been completely obliterated it was like you know i've said this to other people it's like a movie set it was just crazy not nothing like i expected next even though i've seen the movie. pictures before. it's different when you're there because what you can't seen in photos is smell. you know it i was in a school where which had not been cleared yet. there were still bodies underneath the rubble. and i asked my colleagues i said you know what is that smell and they said it's you know people have died here and they've not been cleared so there's basically the smell of death and small cook and sewage and it adds to the whole atmosphere of the whole city being ruined all the buildings are destroyed i don't think i saw one clearly standing building it's it's just the entire city is gone it's going to take a long time to to get back to what it was. they

were living in very difficult conditions they. were very restricted in what they would could and could not do. you know they that they were very restricted in terms of access to food you know obviously mostly made as a humanitarian organization so our primary concern is humanitarian situation and so when asking the question it was mainly you know along the lines of what it is that they need. and they were all very malnutrition because you know under occupation they were not able to access that much food or water or even medical care you know everything that the prices of everything shot up so you would see people having to you know sell everything they own just to get you know some sugar or rice. now if you're looking for something a little out of the old for the holidays israel may have the answer is running an anti terrorist so much you can experience being in a hostage situation. but

the. arabs will. be everyone anyway or any. five times. my white shirt but every time that the top. one the one to q.b. is not a life. no

. doubt about it about the. about the idea of really. really what they do oh it's. so trivial the right it's all new experience situation in order to go back home and you or. something new. it's not. the main controversy surrounding the camp is its location it's situated in the west bank which palestinians consider as occupied territory the boot camp has been condemned by palestinian officials said the tourists attending the camp a mostly american and other by directly supporting the occupation of the land we also spoke to a middle east expert who thinks israel is not doing itself any favors by setting up

. this is something israel has been doing for a very long time reinforces the notion to american visitors in particular that the conflicts can only be solved by military force that the palestinians of the bad guys but the israelis are the good guys i don't think the israelis are really doing themselves a favor though by having this sort of very blatant violence and. tourist oriented operation at bringing in americans in particular to train them on the so-called palestinian terror threat it is a move that is so clearly rejects the international view of what should be happening in in occupied palestinian territory.

the media has been obsessing over the look style and mannerisms of dol chomp of a sense the been in that business but it is paid for the white house but how important is style over substance. has been trying to find out. america's commander in chief it is meant to be a representation of the country as a whole and its values and what does america pride itself on if not diversity we believe our diversity our differences when joined together by a common set of ideals makes a strong americans are a diverse people with respect and concern for every single human being in this country and being very different from previous u.s. presidents donald trump seems to know what it's like to be the outcast his everyday guy in your face persona is one of the things that got him elected i think by single greatest of any assets i have is fight temperament oh just i just. think i'm much more humble than you would understand. you cold when you don't like

that hague's your twitter account only really that you know donald. but it's also what he's attacked for by some of his detractors recently we've seen the media become preoccupied with trump's personal habits some choose to dissect his food choices slamming him for his love of red meat exotic meals fast food you name it it's true he's not like obama who reportedly only eats seven lightly salted almonds for a night snack others criticize the president's lack of obvious exercise dubbing him the least athletic president in u.s. history well maybe a more athletic build is the key to being popular and a few outlets have gone as far as to warn that trump's unique and often unscripted style of speech may be an indicator of mental health issues many fell in love with obama because he was seen as a cool hip guy. which

apparently is not the case with mr trump and that could be hurting him more than he knows because according to a recent poll that's how his predecessor scored high in approval ratings and that same poll shows that sixty five percent of those who do. approve trump do so because of his personality this is a cultural issue they want to force trump into aging of rubella and jogging because he represents in that sense the other side of the cultural divide so it looks like america's champions of diversity disapprove of trump despite him being the man who arguably has made the presidency more diverse perhaps a few more hip trappings could help but probably not. washington d.c. . join me at the top of the hour with more knees.

at. six thirty five and you have a what a career and a career involves using your eyes rolling in your computer and things like that being in an office and perhaps you sort of getting some excess circuit it's. going to have to stop doing all this i mean this is kind of you look at the minutes before. my world became smaller and smaller and smaller until i ended up running it in a box. at a very strong magnetic field. to my head. it's like a real hard pressure my skin burned and that wireless access point and it's just continuous all day with our students in the schools. we are just continually

baiting our citizens in this microwave radiation it is certainly electro small and it's getting worse. i. i'm afshin rattansi we're going underground on the day that you gain us spooks

mingle with b.b.c. c.n.n. and n.b.c. so called journalists in the colorado holiday resort of aspen and its annual security for him coming up in the show is britain even negotiating with the e.u. with bonnie and davis not singing from the same hymn sheet we quiz multi-millionaire investment manager gina miller who took teresa mayes government to court about leaving the largest trade in the world to britain this is union on this program called on tourism is a fender agency boss to resign after the british government wins the right to bat and strike action by workers who believe it is only a matter of time before someone is killed plus. a little gentleman for stratford upon avon is just sticky. and he must stop. shakespeare's county deserves better if they all be hanged that's where and arguable shakespearean at the last p. and q. for u.k. politicians go on holiday all the same or coming up in today's going underground

but first maybe british m.p.'s now in their summer holidays will be going to the movies as part of their vacation because whether it be on ukraine syria or afghanistan or iraq or venezuela they overwhelmingly appear to support interests promulgated by hollywood most glaringly there was obviously this feature length documentary that was no doubt watched by mainstream media journalists than the tories and blairite labor and the us got. the white house the. this. nomination. and jail not to award winning journalist john pilger expose the islamist ties of the u.k. backed white helmets eulogized in the oscar winning film on this very program.